Starbucks makes Grande-size cutbacks across city

Fewer of us will be able to order Tall, Grande and Venti coffees at our local shops, as more than 25 Starbucks cafés have closed in Toronto this week.

The U.S.-based coffee chain plans to put the lid on up to 300 shops across Canada by the end of March, and has already moved on Toronto outlets with closures reported over the past weekend and today.

In a press release on Jan. 12, Starbucks said the overwhelming majority of its stores would remain open in Canada but would be “repositioning its store portfolio” to focus more on “digital relationships with customers via the Starbucks app.”

During the pandemic, Starbucks stores have moved to a model by which customers place orders via apps on their phones or computers.

Online reaction to the Toronto closures appears mixed with Starbucks aficionados lamenting the loss of their favourite supplier, and other coffee drinkers predicting this would allow locally based coffee shops back into area dominated by Starbucks.

I'm okay with this if it gives the opportunity for Toronto-based chains to bounce back faster and establish firmer roots (Pilot, Strange Love, etc). Starbucks will be fine and could potentially come back, but the locals need the business as things slowly re-open.

— Josh McConnell (@joshmcconnell) January 28, 2021

About half of the current Toronto closures are in communities covered by Streeter, with a concentration in the central area. Here are the local closures we know of so far:

 

Central Toronto

• 686 Bay St. at Elm Street
• 37 Grosvenor St. at Bay Street
• 494 Bloor St. West at Bathurst Street
• 66 Gerrard St. East at Church St.
• 8 Wellesley St. East at Yonge Street
• 450 Yonge St. at College Street

Davenport

• 1090 Bloor St. West at Gladstone Avenue
• 900 Dufferin St. in Dufferin Mall
• 2 Ossington Ave. at Queen Street West

Forest Hill

• 504 St. Clair Ave. West at Bathurst Street

North Toronto

• 1909 Yonge St. at Davisville Avenue

York Mills

• 16 York Mills Rd. in York Mills Centre